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BACH
The Empire invades. It comes softly, at first. Offering trade goods, in exchange for something relatively cheap: money, plant life, worthless rocks, unskilled labor. A simple exchange, and one that seems to benefit humankind. Then the actual price tag shows itself: Earth's industries are drying up. Human farms can't compete with Imperial fabrication in terms of cost. Human technologies are eons behind anything the Empire has. And the bill for life in Utopia comes due: Earth needs to import its necessities, and the prices just went way up. Mankind trades secrets first, but quickly runs out. Land comes next, until humanity has almost nowhere left to live. Finally is labor. Humanity and its stowaways are enslaved; their limited technologies stolen and added to the Empire's knowledge base; their mindsets and unique perspectives absorbed into the Empire's own. That is one way it could go, and how it often goes. The Empire invades. Its landing ship arrives in the middle of a festival, and the pilot does something like weeping for something like joy. Music and delicious scents fill the air, and as the crew disembarks they see beautiful colors on those who celebrate. Their trade goods are met with a thousand tales from around the globe, and the Empire cannot wait for more; its culture is monolithic and sterile. Earth now has an export in virtually limitless supply. The Empire cannot conquer Earth without destroying what makes it able to produce its art, and that is now unthinkable. Earth deals with the Empire as equals, and eventually softens its policies. That is Plan BACH's hope. Usual Methods Plan BACH believes that humanity's best hope of surviving the Empire is through art and culture, and attempts to create (and lead humanity to create) the most beautiful artworks it can. Of course, "beautiful" is measured by an alien standard, so they must attempt to disseminate Imperial ideas when possible; otherwise, their exports will be not so much beautiful as incomprehensible. On the other hand, putting too much of the Empire into human art would not just create something inhuman, it would destroy its value to BACH since it would be nothing more that a reiteration of things the Empire has seen before. To this end, BACH tries to take over entertainment media so that they can adjust the standards of human art. A rough critic here; a grant to a post-modern art student there, and art becomes just a little more in keeping with an alien idea. A "good-old-boy" club supports someone who holds to traditional approaches, a novelist writes something scathing about incomprehensible styles, and human art becomes a little more "exotic" to the Empire. At least, that's the theory; in practice controlling artists is like herding cats even when you do "get" humanity. Boon Plan BACH deals in art and culture, and their focus is on Tech that affects the mind. BACH may halve an unaware target's Supernatural Tolerance when using Inhuman Factors Tech. Category:Plan Category:Not Written Category:Rules Information